“DCSex” (formerly VSO) 2011 Update #2

Packing, unpacking, repacking, AUGHGHGHGH!! Two days between events is not enough!

DCSex (the artist formerly known as VSO) (which has now been renamed “DC Swing eXperience (official event)”) (or DCSX) (or DCSex) turned out to be a FUNnnn! weekend!

Terribly cramped Friday night, even more terribly cramped Saturday morning for Novice prelims (even standing room was not available! Much less a seat! Or floor space!) Karen Beck (Dave’s long-time right-hand-man-who-is-a-woman) said “wait till you see what happens tonight! Magic! The walls will magically open up and the floor will magically become bigger! Like Disneyland!”

And they did! Saturday night the walls (“air walls” I’ve learned they are called) went up, more floor was laid down, and poof! Magic! We had a ballroom and floor at least twice the size, roomy and marvelous, with plenty of seating.

Saturday night Dave announced that last year’s VSO had 250 registrations (we get 200 people every Friday night so for us that’s small – if you’re ever here in town try to include a Friday, it’s like a mini-comp every weekend) so he was expecting about the same numbers, maybe a little more. Instead he had 600 registrations by Saturday morning! Wow! No wonder there was nowhere to sit. Happy problem to have. There had been a Bar-Mitzvah next door and some other event on the other side so as soon as the rooms became available Dave was out there pushing walls and laying more floor, and voila! A beautiful big ballroom!

We’re expecting (and hoping) this event will grow. It would be cool if we’d get Lindy Hoppers (we have a great Lindy community here in DC), Shaggers (we’re a one-hour flight from “shag central”), Hand-Dancers, and wcs dancers, so we could have cross-over competitions, workshops to learn all the other styles.

We’d like it to be the Virginia State “Open” that Hutch originally envisioned. How fun would that be!

Closed-circuit TV in the rooms, cameras on the main ballroom floor 24/7 so from the moment we arrived till tear-down on Sunday we were able to see and hear everything – workshops, competitions, everything. All with titles explaining what was going on.

MadJam is purple, Swing Fling bathed in blue, and the color for this event is red. So red and black backdrop, red lights in the ballroom, and everyone encouraged to wear red for the weekend.

Robert Royston emceed most of the weekend (along with Jody Moscaritolioliolio) and was ON all weekend, beyond hilarious. I tried to scratch down both his jokes and Jody’s so I wouldn’t forget anything but he was letting them fly so fast I couldn’t write quickly enough. And most of the time I was laughing so hard all I ended up writing was lines and scribbles all over the page. Most of the event was filmed on ustream (I think? Haven’t looked yet myself) and may still be available there. It’s worth watching just to hear Royston.

Okay so Saturday night! Routines! Most (maybe all) of the following couples are heading out to the Open this weekend.

First Alexis and Akil – (that would be Dean and Dawn’s stunner of a daughter with Akil Boatwright, a darling of a person who saw wcs and was instantly hooked for life) and WOW. Wait till you see! I will say nothing more until after the Open, don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Then three couples in an open swing division (another opportunity to compete but no points – this is not a NASDE event): Rob and Connie (new ending! very dramatic, very hard! Especially hard coming at the very end of a difficult routine); Greg and Lemery (flawless, yet again, at least as far as my untrained eye could see); and Mike Glasgow and Kristin Wenger – lovely, elegant routine – keeps getting better.

Next, the Superstar Show:

Markus and adorable 6 or 7 or 8-year old Marya-Montez Wallace, with sparkly LED-lit hot-pink basketball shoes and ATTITUDE oh so cute, standing ovation of course; Robert Royston and Deborah Szekely’s new Classic routine, “Man In The Mirror” – she tripped or stumbled – and if available on ustream you should try to catch it because you get to see how Champions handle a blip in the middle of a performance: they keep dancing! With even more passion and commitment!; Sam and Lisa West in another graceful, witty, totally delightful shag routine, to the theme from “Pink Panther;” Max Pitruzella and Annie Trudeau in an amazing, hilarious, brilliant lindy routine, complete with props and costumes (how I hope my pictures come out! I was on the floor, two rows back, so lots of heads in the way. If mine don’t come out, though, plenty of other people were taking pictures. And Dave will put up videos I’m sure. You’ve got to see this, you’ll love it); Marcus and Tren (funny, full of life, fun routine they did for us at Swing Fling, to “Boogie Shoes”); Robert and Nicola’s great Edge of Glory, and last of all, and for many the highlight of the weekend, Jordan and Tatiana performing “Pump It,” which seemed, if possible, even faster, funnier, more powerfully, more ferocious, than in 2006. What an honor to see this live, again! Right there in front of us! Wow.

Lots more to tell about last weekend … Alfred inadvertently performing amazing feats of juggling and Jesse Vos inadvertently spinning out of a cummerbund, all while maintaining swing content … which I’ll write up during our flight out to L.A. tomorrow. Virgin America with Wi-Fi! So I might not only get it written I might even be able to send it out!